How to make kid art with glitter and leaves

Let your kids get their glitter on with this fun craft that they can hang and admire all season long.

Think fun fall crafts take tons of prep and have to be expensive to make? That’s not the case with this simple project. We’re using leaves (who doesn’t have piles of those already?), broken crayons (again… piles!) and glitter. If you have kids, you have glitter. So, this one doesn’t even require a trip to the craft store. (While we could have used simple school glue for this project, we like the weight of the wax and the dimension it gives to the leaves.)

Supplies:

Leaves (the fresher, the better, as they will lay flatter than truly dried, curled leaves)

Candle wax or old crayons in red, orange or yellow

Ribbon, embroidery floss or baker’s twine

Glitter (either regular or fine both work great)

Scissors

Hole punch

Happy assistant(s)

Directions:

1. Collect leaves and unwrap crayons

On your next walk, have your young assistants collect fallen autumn leaves. If using crayons, have your assistant remove and discard the paper wrappers and set the crayons aside.

2. Melt the unwrapped crayons

Add the unwrapped crayons or candle wax to an old pan or mini craft crock pot and heat until thoroughly melted.

3. Dip the leaves

Holding each leaf by the stem, dip both sides of the leaf into the melted crayons. (Grown-ups only for this step, please.) Before the crayons cool and harden, have your assistant sprinkle liberally with glitter over a paper plate for easy clean up.

4. Coat with glitter and cool

Set each leaf aside on a piece of foil or parchment paper and allow to cool and harden.Have your assistant give the leaves a good shake over a paper plate to shake off any loose glitter.

5. Finish and display

Have your children cut the stems off the leaves using scissors. Use the hole punch to create a hole for the ribbon, embroidery floss or baker’s twine. String the ribbon through the hole and hang alone or in bunches to decorate.